Articulated vehicle

ABSTRACT

An articulated vehicle comprising a first vehicle portion attached to a second vehicle portion by a joint assembly. The joint assembly preferably comprises a bearing assembly that is pivotally attached to the first vehicle portion such that the bearing assembly can pivot relative to the first vehicle portion about a substantially horizontal axis that is substantially transverse to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. The bearing assembly is also preferably pivotally attached to the second vehicle portion such that the bearing assembly can pivot relative to the second vehicle portion about a substantially vertical axis. The bearing assembly is preferably constructed to enable the first vehicle portion to rotate about the longitudinal axis relative to the second vehicle portion.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to mobile vehicles and, more particularly,is directed to articulated material handling vehicles used inunderground mining operations.

2. Description of the Invention Background

In mining operations, especially in the underground mining of coal andthe like, a variety of conveying apparatuses are used to transport themined material from the mining machine to a final destination whereinthey can be transported from the mine. During the early stages of minedevelopment, main haulageways are created within the mine and oftensupport stationary belt conveyors for transporting the mined materialfrom the mine or a remote collection area. A variety of differentconveying systems and apparatuses have been developed for transferringthe mined material from the mining machine to the main belt conveyors orstaging areas.

One type of apparatus that is used to transport mined material within amine between a mining machine or staging area and a conveyor networkwhich ultimately transfers the material out of the mine is known as ashuttle car. In the past, conventional shuttle cars typically comprisedwheeled vehicles that were equipped with material-receiving containers.The car was usually electrically powered through cables attached to aremote power source and steered by an operator that rode on the vehicle.

The utility of those early cars was often limited due to their inabilityto negotiate "tight" corners between the intersecting passages cutwithin the mine. Thus, the overall size (i.e., width and length) of thecar was confined to dimensions that would permit the car to travelbetween intersecting passages. Therefore, the payload capacity of such ashuttle car was limited.

In more recent years, articulated cars have been developed in an effortto increase the hauling capacity of the car while improving itsmaneuverability. Early articulated shuttle cars typically included afront tractor portion that housed batteries and supported the operatorand a rear container portion that was attached to the tractor portion byan articulated joint arrangement. Examples of such cars are disclosed inU.S. Pat. No. 3,826,387 to Galis, U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,721 to Coval, U.S.Pat. No. 4,011,957 to Bendtsen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,365 to Curry, U.S.Pat. No. 4,245,714 to Kersey and U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,684 to Simmons.

To enhance the vehicle's maneuverability within a mine where unevenfloor conditions are typically present, it is desirable for the vehicleportions to freely rotate relative to each other about the vehicle'slongitudinal axis. Also, to enable the vehicle to traverse undulationsin the mine floor, it is desirable for the vehicle portions to becapable of pivoting about an axis that is transverse to the longitudinalaxis. Furthermore, to enable the vehicle to negotiate relatively sharpcorners within a confined space such as an underground mine, it isdesirable for the vehicle portions to be capable of being selectivelypivotable relative to each other about a vertical axis.

Some prior vehicles have some of the above-mentioned capabilities.However, due to their particular joint construction, such variablearticulation is somewhat limited. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,387to Galis discloses an articulated haulage vehicle that has a hopperportion that is pivotally attached to a prime mover portion such thatthe two portions are capable of selective pivotal motion about avertical axis by a pair of hydraulic cylinders. The vehicle is notequipped to "roll" about a longitudinal axis or pivot about a horizontalaxis.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,721 to Coval discloses an articulated haulagevehicle that has a front portion and a rear portion that are connectedtogether by spherical bearing arrangements that permit the vehiclesections to pivot about a plurality of axes in response to undulationsin the mine floor. Such spherical bearing arrangements, however, aretypically not well-suited for the rigors of underground mining and oftenfail prematurely and/or require frequent maintenance or repair.

Another articulated material handling vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat.No. 4,011,957 to Bendtsen and includes a rear trailer unit that ispivotally attached to a front tractor unit by a hitch assembly. Thehitch assembly includes a vertically arranged pivotal coupling thatpermits the trailer and tractor portions to be pivoted about a verticalaxis by a pair of jacks. The hitch assembly also includes a horizontallyarranged pivotal coupling that enables the tractor and trailer to pivotabout a longitudinal axis of oscillation. This joint arrangement,however, does not permit the tractor and trailer to pivot relative toeach other about a transverse horizontal axis.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,365 to Curry discloses a pivot connection and a tiltmechanism for interconnecting portions of an articulated vehicletogether. The pivot connection is provided between the vehicle portionsto enable them to turn relative to each other. The tilt mechanismincludes a horizontal pivot connection between the two vehicle portionsso that vertical movement of at least a portion of one vehicle adjacentto the horizontal pivot connection will move a portion of the othervehicle adjacent to the pivot connection in the same direction and causethe other vehicle to pivot about the axis of its wheels. This jointarrangement, however, does not permit the vehicle sections to pivotabout a longitudinal axis.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,714 to Kersey discloses an articulated miningvehicle that includes front and rear vehicle portions connected by a"floating" connector member. The connector member has upper and lowervertically aligned pivot connections attached to the rear vehicleportion and horizontally aligned front and rear pivot connectionsattached to the front vehicle portion. This joint arrangement utilizes aplurality of spherical bearings which tend to fail under normal serviceloads.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,684 to Simmons discloses an articulated vehicle witha hinged joint that enables the portions of the vehicle to pivotrelative to each other about three axes extending at right angles toeach other. A hydraulically operated strut extends between the twovehicle sections and is universally pivoted at its ends to the twovehicle sections to control the relative pivoting of the two vehiclesections about a transverse axis while enabling the middle of thevehicle to be raised or lowered for various reasons. The vehicle issteered by a pair of hydraulically operated steering struts. Thehydraulically actuated struts are connected to the vehicle sections byspherical bearing arrangements that are susceptible to failing undernormal operating loads.

Other joint arrangements for articulated vehicles are disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 1,610,902 to Tomlinson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,129 to Anderson,U.S. Pat. No. 2,179,955 to Rawnsley and U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,654 toNuttall, Jr. et al. However, none of those patents disclose a jointarrangement that enables the vehicle sections to pivot relative to eachother about a longitudinal axis, a vertical axis and a transversehorizontal axis and that is reliable and easy to maintain.

Accordingly, there is a need for a joint arrangement for an articulatedvehicle that enables the vehicle portions to pivot relative to eachother about a longitudinal axis, a vertical axis and a transversehorizontal axis that is capable of withstanding the abuse commonlyencountered during underground mining operations and that is easy toaccess for maintenance purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a particular preferred form of the present invention,there is provided an articulated vehicle that has a longitudinal axis.The vehicle preferably comprises a first vehicle portion and a secondvehicle portion that are interconnected along the longitudinal axis by ajoint assembly. The joint assembly preferably comprises a bearingassembly that is pivotally attached to the first vehicle portion suchthat the bearing assembly can pivot relative to the first vehicleportion about a substantially horizontal axis substantially transverseto the longitudinal axis. The bearing assembly is also preferablypivotally attached to the second vehicle portion such that the bearingassembly can pivot relative to the second vehicle portion about asubstantially vertical axis. The bearing assembly enables the firstvehicle portion to rotate about the longitudinal axis relative to thesecond vehicle portion.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improvedarticulated haulage vehicle that employs a relatively compact jointassembly which permits the vehicle to negotiate relatively tight cornerswithin the confines of an underground mine.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an articulatedhaulage vehicle with the above mentioned attributes that is capable ofaccommodating undulations in the mine floor.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a jointassembly for an articulated haulage vehicle that can withstand the abusecommonly encountered by underground mining machinery.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a jointassembly for an articulated haulage vehicle that is easy to access andmaintain.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact jointassembly that has the above-mentioned attributes and, due to itscompactness, enables larger haulage containers to be employed to providethe vehicle with a haulage capacity that is larger than the haulagecapacities of prior articulated shuttle cars.

Accordingly, the present invention provides solutions to theaforementioned problems commonly encountered when using prior haulagevehicles cars. The unique compact design of the joint assembly of thepresent invention enables the haulage vehicle to easily negotiaterelatively tight corners within a confined area without sacrificinghaulage capacity. The subject invention also employs components that aretypically more reliable than the components employed in prior jointarrangements and, can be easily accessed for maintenance purposes. Theseand other details, objects and advantages will become apparent as thefollowing detailed description of the present preferred embodimentsthereof proceeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings, there are shown present preferredembodiments of the invention wherein like reference numerals areemployed to designate like parts and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a preferred articulated vehicle of the subjectinvention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the vehicle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a preferred ball bearing assembly of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the ball bearing assembly of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the ball bearing assembly of FIGS. 3and 4 taken along line V--V in FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings for the purposes of illustrating presentpreferred embodiments of the invention only and not for purposes oflimiting the same, the Figures show an articulated vehicle generallydesignated as 10. The vehicle 10 depicted in the Figures is adapted forhauling materials within confined spaces such as underground mines. Theskilled artisan will readily appreciate, however, that the jointassembly of the present invention can be successfully employed with avariety of different vehicle configurations and designs. Thus, the scopeof the present invention should not be limited to articulated shuttle orhaulage vehicles for underground mining operations.

More particularly and with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown anarticulated vehicle 10 that has a front vehicle portion 20 and a rearvehicle portion 30. Preferably, the front vehicle portion 20 has anoperator area 22 wherein a driver can be seated for driving the vehicle10. The front portion 20 includes wheels 24 that are preferably eachdriven by a separate battery powered motor 26. However, a variety ofdifferent drive arrangements can be employed to drive wheels 24. Thefront vehicle portion 20 also preferably supports a battery pack 27 forsupplying electrical power to the vehicle 10.

In a preferred embodiment, the rear vehicle portion 30 comprises ahaulage container 32 adapted to receive and discharge mined materialssuch as coal and the like. A variety of haulage container designs areknown in the art and thus, the design and construction of haulagecontainer 32 will not be discussed in detail herein. As can be seen inFIGS. 1 and 2, however, the haulage container 32 is also equipped with apair of wheels 34 that are preferably driven by electrically poweredmotors 36. The haulage container also includes a displacement member 37for selectively moving coal or the like to the rear portion of thecontainer.

The rear vehicle portion 30 is attached to the front vehicle portion 20by a preferred joint assembly 40. Joint assembly 40 preferably comprisesa ball bearing assembly 42 that is pivotally attached to the rearvehicle portion 30. As can be seen in FIG. 5, the ball bearing assembly42 comprises a front portion 44 and a rear portion 46. As can be mostparticularly seen in FIG. 5, the front portion 44 has a first raceportion 48 attached thereto and the rear portion 46 has a second raceportion 50 attached thereto. The first and second race portions (48, 50)cooperate to form a bearing raceway, generally designated as 52 whichsupports a plurality of ball bearings therein. The skilled artisan willreadily appreciate that such bearing construction permits the frontbearing portion 44 and the rear bearing portion 46 to freely rotaterelative to each other about a longitudinal axis A--A that extendsthrough the vehicle 10.

In a preferred embodiment, the rear bearing portion 46 is pivotallyattached to the rear vehicle portion 30 by a clevis assembly 60. Moreparticularly, the rear vehicle portion 30 is equipped with a draw bar 62that is adapted to be pinned to the clevis assembly 60. It will beappreciated that such arrangement permits the rear bearing portion 46 topivot relative to the rear vehicle portion about a substantiallyvertical axis B--B. See FIG. 2.

To pivot the rear vehicle portion 30 relative to the rear bearingportion 46 about the vertical axis B-B, a pair of conventional hydrauliccylinders 70 are attached between the rear bearing portion 46 and therear vehicle portion 30 as shown in FIG. 1. The hydraulic cylinders 70are powered by conventional sources of pressurized hydraulic fluid andare controlled by operator's controls in operator station 22. The readerwill appreciate that such arrangement permits the vehicle 10 to besteered around relatively tight corners.

The front bearing portion 44 of the ball bearing assembly 42 ispreferably pinned to the front vehicleportion 20 such that the frontbearing portion 44 can pivot relative to the front vehicle portion 20about a substantially horizontal axis C--C that is transverse to thelongitudinal axis A--A. See FIG. 1. The front bearing portion 44 isequipped with two spaced draw bars 80 that are adapted 0o be received inclevis assemblies 82 that are attached to the front vehicle portion. Toselectively pivot the bearing assembly 40 relative to the front vehicleportion 20 about axis C--C, a hydraulic cylinder 84 is preferablyattached between the front vehicle portion and the front bearingassembly as shown in FIG. 1.

Accordingly, the present invention provides solutions to theaforementioned problems associated with prior articulated vehicles. Inparticular, the present invention enables the front vehicle portion to"roll" relative to the rear vehicle portion about the longitudinal axisA--A to accommodate undulations in the mine floor. Furthermore, thepresent invention permits the front and rear vehicle portions to pivotrelative to each other about a horizontal transverse axis C--C whichenables the vehicle to negotiate dips in the mine floor that mayotherwise cause one or both of the vehicle portions to drag on the minefloor during the negotiation thereof. In addition, the hydrauliccylinder arrangement of the present invention enables the vehicle to besteered around relatively sharp corners within the confines of anunderground mine or other constrained area. It will be understood,however, that various changes in the details, materials and arrangementsof parts which have been herein described and illustrated in order toexplain the nature of the invention may be made by those skilled in theart within the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An articulated vehicle having a longitudinalaxis, comprising:a first vehicle portion; a second vehicle portion; ajoint assembly for interconnecting said first vehicle portion to saidsecond vehicle portion along said longitudinal axis, said joint assemblycomprising a bearing assembly attached by a first pivot means to saidfirst vehicle portion such that said bearing assembly can pivot relativeto said first vehicle portion about a substantially horizontal axissubstantially transverse to said longitudinal axis, said bearingassembly being attached by second pivot means to said second vehicleportion about a substantially vertical axis that does not intersect saidsubstantially horizontal axis, said bearing assembly constructed topermit said first vehicle portion to rotate about said longitudinal axisunrestricted by said second vehicle portion and said second vehicleportion to rotate about said longitudinal axis unrestricted by saidfirst vehicle portion; and first displacement means attached to saidfirst vehicle portion and said bearing assembly for selectively pivotingsaid bearing assembly relative to said first vehicle portion about saidsubstantially horizontal transverse axis.
 2. The articulated vehicle ofclaim 1 wherein said first pivot means comprises a hydraulic cylinder.3. The articulated vehicle of claim 1 further comprising seconddisplacement means attached to said second vehicle portion and saidbearing assembly for selectively pivoting said bearing assembly relativeto said second vehicle portion about said substantially vertical axis.4. The articulated vehicle of claim 3 wherein said second pivot meanscomprises a pair of hydraulic cylinders.
 5. The articulated vehicle ofclaim 1 wherein said first vehicle portion includes motivation means formotivating said articulated vehicle on a surface and wherein said secondvehicle portion comprises a container for hauling materials.
 6. Thearticulated vehicle of claim 1 wherein said bearing means comprises aball bearing assembly.
 7. An articulated shuttle car for hauling minedmaterials, comprising:a first tractor portion having motivating meansfor moving said articulated shuttle car on a surface, said first tractorportion having means for supporting an operator thereon; a secondcontainer portion for receiving and hauling mined material therein; aball bearing assembly for interconnecting said first tractor portion tosaid second container portion along a longitudinal axis, said ballbearing assembly attached to said first tractor portion by a first pivotmeans such that said ball bearing assembly can pivot relative to saidfirst tractor portion about a substantially horizontal axissubstantially transverse to said longitudinal axis, said ball bearingassembly attached to said second container portion by a second pivotmeans such that said ball bearing assembly can pivot relative to saidsecond container portion about a substantially vertical axis andenabling said first tractor portion to rotate about said longitudinalaxis relative to said second container portion unrestricted by saidsecond container portion and said second vehicle portion to rotate aboutsaid longitudinal axis unrestricted by said first tractor portion afirst hydraulic cylinder attached to said first tractor portion and saidball bearing assembly for selectively pivoting said ball bearingassembly relative to said first tractor portion about said substantiallyhorizontal transverse axis; and a pair of second hydraulic cylindersattached to said second container portion and said ball bearing assemblyfor selectively pivoting said ball bearing assembly relative to saidsecond container portion about said substantially vertical axis.
 8. Anarticulated joint for attaching a tractor portion of a shuttle car to acontainer portion for hauling mined materials, comprising;a ball bearingassembly attached to said tractor portion by a first pivot means suchthat said ball bearing assembly can pivot relative to said tractorportion about a substantially horizontal axis substantially transverseto a longitudinal axis extending the length of the shuttle car, saidball bearing assembly attached to said container portion by a secondpivot means such that said ball bearing assembly can pivot relative tosaid container portion about a substantially vertical axis and enablingsaid tractor portion to rotate about said longitudinal axis relative tosaid container portion unrestricted by said container portion and saidcontainer portion to rotate about said longitudinal axis unrestricted bysaid tractor portion; a first hydraulic cylinder attached to saidtractor portion and said ball bearing assembly for selectively pivotingsaid ball bearing assembly relative to said tractor portion about saidsubstantially horizontal transverse axis; and a pair of second hydrauliccylinders attached to second container portion and said ball bearingassembly for selectively pivoting said ball bearing assembly relative tosaid container portion about said substantially vertical axis.